If Microsoft thought they were just going to waltz into Yahoo headquarters, plop down a check for a measely $44.6 billion, and walk away with a new internet property, then they’ve got another thing coming.
The first problem, according to this business site, is that several other companies are set to place their pocketbooks side-by-side with Microsoft. So far the companies known to be competing with Microsoft in the bid for Yahoo takeover are: News Corp. (Fox), Apple, and a conglomerate known as InterActiveCorp.
Analysts have also named a couple of the top search engine firms in China as well, namely Alibaba.com, and Baidu.com.
While I’m sure Microsoft would feel comfortable getting into a monetary bidding match with any of the above listed companies, it seems that they might have more to worry about than just writing a bigger check than anyone else is willing to.
To add more fuel to the fire, Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief executive of Yahoo, is apparently a big Microsoft hater. He’s hoping that Yahoo gets another offer from a "White Knight" buyer. Not only does he not like Microsoft, he’s so far on the other side of the spectrum that he even invited Steve Jobs out to Yahoo HQ in Sunnyvale, California to give an inspiration speech to the employees.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer isn’t going to be deterred very easily though. He was quoted as saying in a conference call, "If we don’t get it right at first, we’ll just keep coming and coming and coming and coming."
Word is that Microsoft needs this deal to go through to have any chance of turning a future profit in their money bleeding Internet division.
